SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS. 411 



statement of the principles of the science upon which the prac- 

 tices of agriculture as an art are founded/' appeared in 1860. The 

 civil war interrupted his labors. The anxieties and separation 

 from friends occasioned by it probably hastened his death, which 

 took place at his residence in Brunswick County, N. C, October 1, 

 1863. His wife, a son, and two daughters survived him. 



Besides the works already mentioned. Prof. Emmons published 

 an account of the Taconic System (Albany, 1844). Having been 

 commissioned by Governor Edward Everett to report upon the 

 Zoology of Massachusetts, he prepared a volume, devoted to the 

 quadrupeds, which was printed at Cambridge in 1840. His Ameri- 

 can Geology, which appeared in 1855, was supplemented by a 

 Manual of Geology in 1859. 



A clear-sighted and energetic worker. Dr. Emmons was a liv- 

 ing force for the advancement of his chosen science. The Rev. 

 Mark Hopkins, President of Williams College from 183G to 1872, 

 said of him : " Emmons was a man of remarkable power and great 

 accuracy of observation. He seemed to have an intuitive percep- 

 tion of the differences in natural objects. He possessed an intense 

 enthusiasm in his work, but in his manner was remarkably quiet. 

 I have never seen the two things combined to the same extent. 

 His perseverance knew no limit. It ought to be added that, in 

 connection with his science, he was deeply religious. Williams 

 College is greatly indebted to him for its collections in natural 

 history." 



Several instances of the Eurojiean survival of practices that probably 

 originated in cannibalism were cited in a discussion on that subject at the 

 meeting of the British Association. Mr. Elworthy said that in one part of 

 France the last of the harvest corn is baked into a loaf shaped like a human 

 figure. This is supposed to represent the spirit of the corn the spirit of 

 vegetation, reproduction, fertihty and is broken up, distributed among the 

 villagers, and eaten. Mr. E. S. Hartland said that not long ago, in upper 

 Bavaria, when a man died and had been laid out, a cake was made of ordi- 

 nary flour. The corpse was placed before the fire, and this cake, called the 

 corpse cake, was put upon his breast to rise. The dough, in rising, was 

 believed to absorb all the virtues of the deceased, and the cake was after- 

 ward eaten by his nearest relatives. In the Balkan Peninsula an edible 

 image of the dead was carried in the funeral procession. When the body 

 was buried the mourners ate this image above the grave, saying, " God rest 

 him!" In Wales the function of the "sin-eater" has only ceased within 

 the memory of men still living. It was the custom for the nearest relative, 

 usually a woman, to hand across the bier, or place upon the breast of the 

 corpse, bread, cheese, and beer, which were eaten by the sin-eater, who 

 pronounced everlasting rest to the depai-ted. It was believed that the 

 sin-eater thus appropriated to himself all the sins which the deceased had 

 committed. 



